Tuesday's mayoral race did not pull voters to the polls, unlike the last two open-seat contests.

Roughly 30 percent of the city's eligible voters participated in the 1997 and 2003 contests.

Tuesday's turnout was expected to land around 20 percent.

“We may be looking at less than 20 percent, and that's pitiful,” Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman said.

Part of the difference between this year and previous open-seat races is the jump in registered voters, driven in part by massive efforts to get people signed up for last year's presidential election.

In Harris County, nearly 1.9 million people are registered to vote, compared to 1.2 million in 1997, and less than 1 million in 2003. Turnout for Houston includes figures for people in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties who live in the city limits.

Absentee votes a sign

In the last 12 years, city turnout has been higher during open-seat years, an analysis by the Harris County Clerk's Office showed.

In 1997, more than 342,000 — 28 percent — voted in the race that made Lee Brown Houston's first black mayor. Six years later, term limits left the office open again.

A 31 percent turnout in the 2003 contest brought Bill White to City Hall. That was nearly 300,000 voters.

The 2001 race brought fewer voters, but, with a decline in registrations, also landed at 28 percent.

Tuesday's 20 percent prediction was based on early and absentee votes, which usually represent about 30 percent of the total ballots cast, Kaufman said. That would have Houstonians in Harris County on track to cast about 200,000 ballots.

Kaufman attributed the lack of interest on a pleasantly cool and sunny day to apathy, perhaps exacerbated by the economy.

“I think perhaps the voters didn't look at the candidates hard enough to see that much difference in them … ,” she said. “I think that there just wasn't a candidate out there that just really rang the bell for anybody.”

No money, no issues

Rice University Political Scientist Robert Stein said he was not surprised by the turnout, since his polling indicated many registered voters planned to stay home.

“There's just not enough money being spent in this campaign,” he said.

He also noted that polls have shown between 70 percent and 80 percent of Houstonians are satisfied with the state of the city, making it difficult for any candidate to gain traction by professing to change its direction or otherwise shake things up. Nor did a dominant issue emerge.

“You don't have money, you don't have issues and the candidates did not differentiate themselves,” he said. “Those conditions make it hard to inspire voters.”

Political consultant Mustafa Tameez said voters did not really know the mayoral candidates.

“If you can't describe who is running, then what's the incentive for showing up on election day?” he said.

Voters should get more excited by the December runoff, he said.

“We're likely to see that change in the runoff race,” Tameez said. “It's going to be a very strongly contested, hard-fought race going into a much longer runoff period.”